Confessions for Casey
by RedMonocle
Summary: "Upon inspection, everything seems perfectly fine. All Casey is doing is blinking and gurgling as she usually does. What a boring little thing… though, unadmittedly, you find her as weirdly adorable as her owner." PepsiCola. AU-ish. One-shot. COMPLETE.


**A/N:**

**Well, well, happy early Valentine's (Quadrants?) Day, I guess. :P I'm fairly new to this fandom, so please bear with any moments where these adorable dorks seem OOC. I tried and mah friend in art seemed to like it (shout out to you, Pinecone).**

**Also: characters aren't mine; they belong to the brilliant storyteller known as Andrew Hussie. This is a _fan_fiction for any of you lost internet surfers, just to be clear.**

**Now h****ere's some sappy crap with my OTP.** Please enjoy.

**-Reddie**

* * *

You are Dave Strider, best friend to a movie-loving dork by the name of John Egbert. Today is Valentine's Day, and instead of gracing one of the many honeys dying for your Strider swag with your presence, you decided to do your best bud for life a favor and babysit his pet salamander, Casey, while he's out for the day.

It's not a bad deal. You get to raid Egbert's room for his movies and stuff your face with the cake his dad left in the fridge. Hell, if they have any apple juice, that'd be rad too. And you only have to check Casey once every hour. How awesome is that?

So you set up in John's room away from Casey's tank, cake and juice box in hand, and commandeer his computer for viewing pleasure of one of his better comedies.

Then, just as the movie starts up, you hear a noise from where Casey is across the room.

With a sigh, you pause and get up to check on her.

Upon inspection, everything seems perfectly fine. All Casey is doing is blinking and gurgling as she usually does. What a boring little thing… though, unadmittedly, you find her as weirdly adorable as her owner.

Well, obviously John's much cuter, not that you'd say it straight up. You prefer to call him an ugly-ass bastard because it's always fun to see him get all worked up about it.

Turning away from the amphibious lizard, you plop back down on John's bed and unpause the movie. And much to your horror, it freezes up and displays the blue screen of death shortly before shutting down. Looking below, you see that you had knocked your knee against the power button by mistake.

"Oops" is all you can get out, switching off the screen and leaving John to deal with whatever came up next time he turned it on.

Not wanting to disrupt anymore of his technology, you stand back up, push the chest over next to Casey, and sit beside her, consuming your cake and apple juice in peace. All the while, you're just kind of wishing John will come back soon so he can hang out. You feel like chatting, but pestering John seems neither a good nor reasonable idea, given you don't know the password for John's wifi (so no internet connection on your phone) and the fact that his PDA was left behind, nestled snugly between his bunny's ears. For the hell of it, you take off your shades and put them on the toy. They tilt lopsided off its nose and you can't help but smile briefly at it. For a dusty old thing, John sure kept your gift in good shape.

Jarring you out of your thoughts, Casey gurgles loudly at you, gesturing towards her food outside the tank, a container of worms. _Nice try, Casey, but John said he already fed you,_ you think.

When she sees you aren't falling for it, she gives up and just stares blankly at you.

To amuse yourself, you start talking to the salamander.

"Trickster just like him, huh?" You laugh, continuing on because Casey can't really pose a reply. "You adorable little thing. You know, right after my bro, your owner is the coolest guy I know. He's this sweet, innocent dork who isn't afraid to jostle me, while everyone else is worried they'll rub me the wrong way. I'm gonna admit, it was enough to make me fall heels over ass for him, not that I'd tell him out loud." Running a hand over the rabbit's ear, you sigh. "I mean, at least to me, he's a lovable guy. I'm actually surprised the goofball's got it going for him, out on Valentine's Day and all. Must be out on a date. Wonder how it's going. Did he take her to the movies or some shit like that? Seems like something he'd do… heh. Then I bet he smooshed his nose against hers trying to kiss her. Ha, that precious bastard… I hope he gets back soon." You say that last part softly, not noticing the sly grin on the salamander's features. Shifting your gaze away from Casey, you retrieve your shades and get up from off the chest to throw away your empty juice box and paper cake-plate.

And right on cue, John strolls up to the door with a giant-ass pizza box and… a gift bag, most likely from his date. Damn, looks like it went well, you take it.

You let yourself out of his room and open the front door for him.

"Hello, Dave." He beams at you.

"Hey, Egbert. Welcome back." You hold the door open for him and make a swirly gentleman gesture with your hands.

Setting the pizza and gift-bag on the couch, he asks, "How was Casey?"

"Oh, awful." You reply, sarcasm easily detected from the smirk on your face, "She totally wrecked your room and jumped all over your laptop with her slimy little feet."

John lets out a giggly peep, "Dave."

"I tried to stop her, man, but she overpowered me with her amphibian mind tricks. She played me like one of Bro's smuppets, took my arm and made me facepalm like eight hundred times, taunting me all the while, 'Why are you hitting yourself? Why are you hitting yourself?'"

"Dammit, Dave!" John bursts out laughing, "Oh, enough, enough! My sides hurt!" Wiping the merry tears in his eyes, he opens up the pizza box and takes up a couple of slices for you two to munch on. "C'mon, let's take this up to my room. I got stuff to tell you."

"Oh, yes, please do divulge all the raunchy details of your date. I totally wanna hear how you slobbered all over her."

"Pft! Aw, Dave." John snorts, his eyes crinkling under the giggles in his throat. Grabbing the gift bag with his clean hand, he starts for his room. "Come on already."

You both tramp up to his room together, and the moment you go in, John nervously thrusts out his hand to you, holding out the gift bag for you to take. Confused, you quirk up an eyebrow behind your shades.

"What? Are you already re-gifting your date's stuff? I'm shocked, John. You are not the man I thought I—"

"No, Dave, it's… I-I got it for you." Your red eyes widen and peer out from over black lens.

"Is this a prank?"

He shakes his head furiously, "Just open it."

Cautiously, you reach into the bag and feel something plush. Deeming it harmless, you pull it out of the bag. It turns out to be a stuffed crow doll with reddish-gold eyes. There's a thin ribbon around its neck barely hiding the end of a zipper at the bird's throat. Intrigued, you undo the ribbon and pull the zipper down. A pouch of heart-shaped Fruit Gushers and a little card tumbled out of the doll's unzipped gut.

You read the card… an "I love you, okay?" is scribbled inside with a derpy doodle of John holding up a heart.

"Holy shit… John…" A bit overwhelmed by surprise, you stumble back a bit and settle your butt down on his bed. He takes a seat beside you, and shyly places his hand over yours. You can feel your pulse thudding in your ears.

"I don't know where you got the idea that I was out on a date today, but I just rolled with it because I didn't want to spoil the surprise. So… be my Valentine, Strider?" And from there, you sorta fly off the handle.

Pushing up your shades, you abruptly squish your lips to his in a kiss that tastes like molten mozzarella and oregano tomato paste. It isn't long before you feel John's smile curling up against your own, and eventually, the need for air nudges you both apart. Breathlessly, John asks, "So is that a yes?"

"Nah. It's a hell yeah. And… I'd be happy to be more than just your Valentine."

And so Casey is left to avert her eyes in embarrassment as you and her owner continue smooching and giggling dorkishly on the bed. But at the same time, she's uber happy for you two.

After all, she used to listen to John rambling sappily about you long before today.


End file.
